It is said it takes a village to raise a child.
Sam Mitchell will tell you that an elite athlete will not bloom without a supportive family, and can not possibly be their best without the dedication of a partner.
Mitchell enters the Australian Football Hall of Fame this week at the first possible opportunity with one of the great football CVs of the modern AFL era – four premierships, a five-time Crimmins Medallist, triple All-Australian in an era of star midfielders and Brownlow Medallist.
Famous for a minimum of words, a small rear-vision mirror on life and a clinical, perfunctory approach to excellence, induction into the Hall of Fame causes him to reflect on 20 years in the game that has rushed by, and to give particular thanks to wife Lyndall and his wider family.
“I’m not an overly emotional type but you think about all the people who help you get there. Your wife, your coaches, friends, parents …,” as the words trail off during a catch-up at Waverley while watching over Hawthorn training.
“Lyndall and I have been together for nearly 20 years and some much of our life has been filled up by the AFL.
“So to be acknowledged and to say your service is appreciated by others is very special.
“I did a bit of looking into who is in the Hall of Fame and when you see who is in there, it is very humbling.
“When you get the time to sit and look back over your time in the game and say this is something to be proud of, you don’t take those moments for granted.”
The mind’s eye when remembering Mitchell the player is one who was constantly in the right place, won his overwhelming share of contests, always delivered to a team mate and he was a player who made his team better with the speed of his thought and his clean skills on both sides, hand and foot.
Mitchell himself, not one for flowery tributes and certainly not when talking of himself, says the latter part of his career hid the development he required and growth he had to make in his early years, and he was no overnight success.
Three of his four premierships came after 30, as did the majority of his club best and fairest victories, hence the thanks to Lyndall, and the delight in sharing the honour with children Smith, Emmy and Scarlett, and the wider family.
Before he’d even got to Hawthorn, the path trod to AFL level was not garlanded with roses, as he wasn’t selected at the National Draft, despite winning two best and fairests as a junior at Eastern Ranges.
“One of the things that happened was that the Draft Camp invitations came out with about 8-10 rounds to go in my last year of junior footy, and I wasn’t one of them.
“At that point you know you are not getting drafted when you’ve been under their eyes for that long.”
The young Mitchell was a footballer, not an athlete, but he could win the ball and he had to quickly decide what he wanted to do next – be a top-class suburban footballer and be reasonably well paid or find a different way into the AFL and continue chasing his dream to be his best.
Rather than head to the SANFL or WAFL and try and be noticed there, the nascent partnership between Hawthorn and Box Hill had just begun and he headed there, to play under Donald McDonald.
“I thought playing against AFL players in the VFL was the best way to show I could play.
“My era of that draft period was about looking at athletes but I was a footballer. I was short and slow but clearances were my one-wood. My belief in myself didn’t waver but the thought of whether I would get there as an AFL player certainly took a hit.”
McDonald backed him, and remains one of the first people that Mitchell credits for achieving his goals, along with the likes of David Parkin, Richie Vandenberg, Daniel Chick and Shane Crawford.
“Donald was a huge advocate for me and he played me in key roles, ahead of older AFL guys trying to continue their careers, while Parko was someone in my corner, and then so were guys like Richie, Daniel Chick and Crawf.
“That fight for my opportunity must have been significant behind the scenes, but Donald did that in pushing me forward and at the end of the year I was drafted by the Hawks.”
Even then, second time around at the draft, it was still a close-run thing as Mitchell learned later in his career, discovering that the Hawks had agonised on whether to select him or Leigh Montagna. They asked for extra time on pick 36 and eventually plumped for their winner of the Liston Medal while, moments later, St Kilda didn’t hesitate for a second and couldn’t call Montagna’s name fast enough at number 37.
“The draft wasn’t televised and I was on dial-up internet to see the picks coming up. I knew from Donald that the club was really keen on Leigh Montagna and they asked for extra time. Next thing I know, when it refreshed, my name was there next to Hawthorn and St Kilda had taken Leigh immediately with the next pick.”
Sliding doors.
Parkin both backed Mitchell and hectored him how to improve while the player himself felt he could belong after a run of four games at the end of his debut season, including polling his first-ever Brownlow Medal vote in the last game of 2002 against the Geelong Cats.
“As a young player, you’re just trying to get a game and then to become a regular member of the team, and that’s something I have to constantly remember now that I’m coaching.
“In one of my early games, I bumped Robert Harvey and had half-beaten him in a contest and that was a big moment for my belief as an AFL-level player.
“In my second game, there was McLeod, Ricciuto, Bickley, Crawford, Chick and me in the centre square, plus the two ruckmen.
“I was thinking I wasn’t going to get the ball against those five, but it was my job to get it, and that was a big realisation that I’m here to do something.”
The arrival of Alastair Clarkson turned the club upside down and set a group of highly-talented individuals – yet to achieve any significant success – on their way to building a dynasty.
“There was a Hawthorn-way we did things, because it had been successful for so long, but Clarko came along and changed everything.
“He just drove the professionalism and what would be best for the players to achieve success, and he had such incredible belief in a new way to play and a new way to defend.”
Mitchell was captain for a 2008 premiership won against the odds over a brilliant Geelong side.
Clarkson famously believed his Hawks could win with system, whereby they were the first to zone the entire ground will a full-team defence and the Cats, a team of sharks that always needed to go forward, lost their way in a full-ground net.
“I remember a meeting with (assistant) David Rath in 2007, and he asked if we could zone the whole oval. We players said it was too hard, but David and Clarko said we were going to try and very soon we were really hard to play against.
“We had some horror games early and lots of things went wrong but it was a massive tactical jump that made us different to everyone else,” Mitchell says, crediting his long-time coach with a revolution that changed footy.
In this time, Smith and twins Emmy and Scarlett arrive within a year and life is incredibly full, hence the thanks to Lyndall and those around him who provided constant support. Mark Evans, then football manager and now CEO at Gold Coast, is a pivotal figure alongside Lyndall for Mitchell to be the footballer he could be.
“It’s very tough to be trying to play top-class sport with three very young babies and Lyndall is doing so much in a very tough period.
“When I turned 30, we had one premiership, had lost one to the Swans, we were in danger of not justifying our potential and I’d cost us a key big game in a preliminary final with something I did to give away a key late free kick. So I had a lot to drive me.
“At that time, we began six years of top footy and we won three premierships but I never looked back and enjoyed it when I was in the middle of it.”
To look back now, Mitchell says his work ethic was an obvious contributor to success, but he realises now he had the ability to assess and change his game during a match, if things weren’t working, and having the confidence to try things and back his skills made him dangerous to opponents.
“There’s a lot of bumps in the road before you are a finished product. You get a lot of things wrong along the way, and a lot of players do pull back when they make errors, but because I didn’t worry about an error, that helped me a lot.
“The best kicks are the most confident players because they are willing to make a mistake.”
A Hall of Fame interview can’t be complete without defining the greats that he played with and against.
The answers to those questions come in a flash.
“Gary Ablett was awesome. He was so complete. He could kick goals, had a great engine, had great power and great speed. He could break tackles and he could nail tackles. He had everything.
“He was the best player of my generation.
“As a team mate, Lance was just so commanding in everything he did. It’s not hard to pick those two out.”
Taggers were a constant presence, with Kane Cornes and Brett Kirk proving major challenges but Cameron Ling being the most difficult of all while he learned his craft.
“Ling got me so many times because he was so good but, by the end, I had learned to treat taggers as if they weren’t there and concentrate on winning the ball.
“Kirk was very tough and Kane got me a few times. It pissed me off he retired straight after his 300th game because he beat me really badly and I was looking forward to a rematch to play better and he retired on me,” he laughs.
Not one for reflection when he played, the call from Commission Chair Richard Goyder prompted Mitchell to think over a life in the game, and it reminded him that the game does not define him, no matter what a fan or any other person may think of Sam Mitchell.
“When I was 25, football defined me. Now, it’s much more important that I’m Sam Mitchell the husband, the father, the friend, the son and all those parts of my life.
“I had my time on the field and I’m completely at peace that I got to play and now it’s finished.
“These days, while I’m a coach and that does have a profile and asks a lot of time of you, when I’m at home, I’m doing year seven fractions to help the children with maths, helping with English homework and just being a husband and dad.”
Sam Mitchell is a deserving member now of Australian Football’s Hall of Fame.
Sam Mitchell’s Hall of Fame Record:
- 329 games for Hawthorn and West Coast, 71 goals
- 2008 (captain), 2013, 2014, 2015 Premierships
- 2012 Brownlow Medal
- 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016 Best and Fairest
- 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015 Top Three Best and Fairest
- 2011, 2013, 2015 All Australian
- 2008-10 Hawthorn Captain
- 2003 Rising Star
